Hi.

I got my first car, a 2002 Honda Civic EP2 back in May, and love it, and already plan to upgrade to a more recent generation Civic next year when my insurance is due for renewal. I've been having a few issues with the headlights though and was hoping someone might have an idea what is going wrong.

Turning the stalk selector to the dipped setting, I get very very dim lights that illuminate very little of the road and just about allow me to be seen at night. the range is poor and the light is only visible from reflective objects on the road (signs, lane markers). Moving the selector to the main beam/fog setting, the lights become brighter, but only what you would expect from the dipped beams, no where near full illumination. No blue dashboard light comes on to indicate that main beams are active... I thought this was normal until tonight when I pull the stalk to flash the lights and suddenly they are incredibly bright and the blue dashboard light comes on. All the time I had been driving on the faulty 'dipped' setting fearing I would dazzle people otherwise when in fact I should have turned it to full, to get true dipped lights. It's almost as if the switch is one stage behind.

Of course I can't drive holding the stalk back constantly as it is going to hinder my steering. While I can get by on the dipped light, I prefer not to as much of my driving involves unlit country roads at night where every bit of illumination is needed to anticipate the road ahead.

I'll probably take it to see a mechanic over the next week, but does anyone have any ideas?

 

Sounds like they're loose. Have you looked into properly aiming them? There is an adjustment screw - google it, and you'll see where they are. I'd start there first and see if the housings are loose as well. Though the bright indicator on the dash not coming on is a probably red flag too that there might be something more serious on the stalk or the wiring instead. But start with the easy stuff first.